Quotes

Plainview:
I broke you and I beat you. It was Paul who told me about you. He's the prophet. He's the smart one. He knew what was there and he found me to take it out of the ground, and you know what the funny thing is? Listen... listen... listen... I paid him ten thousand dollars, cash in hand, just like that. He has his own company now. A prosperous little business. Three wells producing. Five thousand dollars a week.

Plainview:
They should have put you in a glass jar on a mantlepiece. Where were you when Paul was suckling at his mother's teat? Where were you? Who was nursing you, poor Eli? One of Bandy's sows? That land has been had. Nothing you can do about it. It's gone. It's had.

Plainview:
Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I'm so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? Watch it. Now, my straw reaches acroooooooss the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I... drink... your... milkshake!

Plainview:
I don't want to talk about those things. I see the worst in people, Henry. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built up my hatreds over the years, little by little. Having you here gives me a second breath of life. I can't keep doing this on my own... with these, umm... people.

Plainview:
You can't speak. so why don't you flap your hands about and have what's-his-name tell me where you've been. Or do you think I don't know?

HW's Interpreter, George:
This is hard for me to say. I'll tell you first: I love you very much. I've learned to love what I do because of you. I'm leaving here. I'm going to Mexico. I'm taking Mary, and I'm going to Mexico. I miss working outside. I miss the fields. It'll only be for a time, for me to do my own drilling and start my own company. It's time to make a change.

Plainview:
[back to H.W]
You operated here today like one. I should have seen this coming. I should have known that under this, all these past years, you've been building your hate for me piece by piece. I don't even know who you are because you have none of me in you. You're someone else's. This anger, your maliciousness, backwards dealings with me. You're an orphan from a basket in the middle of the desert, and I took you for no other reason than I needed a sweet face to buy land. D'you get that? So now you know.

[Plainview whistles mockingly]

Plainview:
Look at me. You're lower than a bastard. You have none of me in you. You're just a bastard from a basket.

Plainview:
[H.W. and George get up and begin to leave the room]
You're not my son. You're just a little piece of competition. Bastard from a basket. Bastard from a basket! You're a bastard from a basket!

Plainview:
Ladies and gentlemen... I've traveled over half our state to be here tonight. I couldn't get away sooner because my new well was coming in at Coyote Hills and I had to see about it. That well is now flowing at two thousand barrels and it's paying me an income of five thousand dollars a week. I have two others drilling and I have sixteen producing at Antelope; so, ladies and gentlemen, if I say I'm an oil man, you will agree. Now, you have a great chance here, but bear in mind, you can lose it all if you're not careful. Out of all men that beg for a chance to drill your lots, maybe one in twenty will be oilmen; the rest will be speculators - that's men trying to get between you and the oilmen - to get some of the money that ought by rights come to you. Even if you find one that has money and means to drill, he'll maybe know nothing about drilling and he'll have to hire the job out on contract, and then you're depending on a contractor who'll rush the job through so he can get another contract just as quick as he can. This is... the way that this works.

Man:
Well, what is your offer? W-w-we're wasting time.

[crowd responds: "Yes." "Please."]

Plainview:
I do my own drilling, and the men that work for me work for me. and they're men I know. I make it my business to be there and to see their work. I don't lose my tools in the hole and spend months fishing for them; I don't botch the cementing off and let water in the hole and ruin the whole lease. I'm a family man. I run a family business. This is my son and my partner, H.W. Plainview.

[indicates H.W]

Plainview:
We offer you the bond of family that very few oilmen can understand. I'm fixed like no other company in this field and that's because my Coyote Hills well has just come in. I have a string of tools all ready to put to work. I can load a rig onto trucks and have them here in a week. I have business connections so I can get the lumber for the derrick - such things go by friendship in a rush like this - and this is why I can guarantee to start drilling and to put up the cash to back my word. I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, no matter what the others promise to do, when it comes to the showdown, they won't be there.

Plainview:
[pitching his company to the people of Little Boston]
Ladies and gentlemen? Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for visiting with us this evening. Now, I've traveled across half our state to be here and to see about this land. Now, I daresay some of you might have heard some of the more extravagant rumors about what my plans are; I just thought you'd like to hear it from me. This is the face. There's no great mystery. I'm an oilman, ladies and gentlemen. I have numerous concerns spread across this state. I have many wells flowing at many thousand barrels per day. I like to think of myself as an oilman. As an oilman, I hope that you'll forgive just good old-fashioned plain speaking. Now, this work that we do is very much a family enterprise; I work side by side with my wonderful son, H.W. - I think one or two of you might have met him already - and, uh, I encourage my men to bring their families, as well. Of course, it makes for an ever so much more rewarding life for them. Family means children; children means education; so, wherever we set up camp, education is a necessity, and we're just so happy to take care of that. So let's build a wonderful school in Little Boston. These children are the future that we strive for and so they should have the very best of things. Now something else, uh... and please don't be insulted if I speak about this - bread. Let's talk about bread. Now to my mind, uh, it's an abomination to consider that any man, woman or child in this magnificent country of ours should have to look upon a loaf of bread as a luxury. We're gonna dig water wells here and, uh, water wells means irrigation. Irrigation means cultivation. We're gonna raise crops here where before it just simply wasn't impossible. You're going to have more grain than you know what to do with. Bread will be coming right out of your ears, ma'am. New roads, agriculture, employment, education - these are just a few of the things we can offer you, and I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that if we do find oil here - and I think there's a very good chance that we will - this community of yours will not only survive, it will flourish.

Plainview:
O-oh! You don't own the railroads? Course you do. Of course you do.

H.M. Tilford:
Where you gonna put it all? Where? Build a pipeline, make a deal with Union Oil? Be my guest, but if you can't pull it off, you've got an ocean of oil under your feet, with nowhere to go. Why not turn it over to us? We'll make you rich. You spend time with your boy. It's a great discovery. Now let us help you.

Plainview:
[after a long pause]
D'you just tell me how to run my family?

H.M. Tilford:
It might be more important now that you've proven the field and we're offering to buy you out.

Eli Sunday:
Oh, Daniel, you've come here and you've brought good and wealth, but you have also brought your bad habits as a backslider. You've lusted after women, and you have abandoned your child - your child that you raised. You have abandoned all because he was sick and you have sinned. So say it now - "I am a sinner."

Eli Sunday:
Oh! He's completely failed to alert me to the recent panic in our economy and this! I-I... I must have this. I must, I must, I must, I must, I must have this. My investments have... Daniel, I won't bore you, but I... If I could grab the Lord's hand for help, I would, but he does these things all the time, these mysteries that he presents and while we wait... while we wait for his word...

Plainview:
Because you're not the chosen brother, Eli. It was Paul who was chosen. Yes, he-he found me and he told me about your land. You're just a fool.

Eli Sunday:
Shut your mouth, Abel! It was your stupid son! It was Paul who told him to come here. I know it. He went to him, and he said "My stupid, weak father will give away his lots. Go and take him." - and you let it happen.

Eli Sunday:
And I had a vision. Yes, last night, I had a vision. And I felt God's breath go through me, and it moved down into my stomach and sloshed around, and my stomach spoke in a whisper, not a shout: "Touch this woman with your hands, and caress her."

Eli Sunday:
Yes, the Devil is in your hands, and I will suck it out. Now, I will not cast this ghost out with a fever, for the new spirit inside me has shown me I have a new way to communicate. It is a gentle whisper.

[touches hands to Mrs. Hunter's face]

Eli Sunday:
Get out of here, ghost. Get out of here, ghost. Get out. Get out of here, ghost. Get out of here, ghost. Get out of here, ghost. Get out of here, and don't you dare turn around and come back, for if you do, all the armies of my boot will kick you in the teeth, and you will be cast up and thrown in the dirt and thrust back to Perdition! And as long as I have teeth, I will bite you! And if I have no teeth, I will gum you! And as long as I have fists, I will bash you! Now, get out of here ghost! Get out of here, ghost! Get out of here, ghost! Egh! YEOW!

Paul Sunday:
This is us, here. Spur Station, here at Little Boston. The Sunday ranch is what you're looking for. There's a sheep trail that takes you there. It's a mile out of town, headed west, not far. Just through a small pass here, near the base of the hills. You'll pass a church, and just follow the sheep trail.

Plainview:
Joe Ghunda was a man of considerable faith, so if you wish to say a few words, his burial's at noon, tomorrow.

Eli Sunday:
Daniel, this accident could have been avoided. It is terrible to think of that well working away out there, unblessed...

Plainview:
Yes, it could have. These men are working twelve hour shifts and they need their rest. If they don't have it, they start to make stupid mistakes...

Eli Sunday:
I've seen some of the men drinking. Don't you think that has something to do with it...

Plainview:
We need these men well rested to bring in this well. They can't get that if they're up here listening to your gospel, and then the well can't produce and blow gold all over the place...

Eli Sunday:
I wish I had more time with Joe Ghunda. More could have been done...

Plainview:
And then the well can't produce and blow gold all over the place. Now, would you see to it that his personal possessions find their way back to his family, please? Thank you. Heard you were planning some renovations?

Henry Brands:
I met a man in King City who said he was your brother. We were friends for months, working in King City, and he wanted to make his way to you, Daniel. We didn't have any money... He died of tuberculosis. He wasn't harmed, wasn't killed, nothing bad, but he told me about you and I just took his story... used his diary... Daniel... Daniel, I'm your friend. I'm not trying to hurt you. Never. Just survive...

Plainview:
[Daniel has covered his face with a napkin]
So Standard offered us a million dollars for the Little Boston leases, and I told H. M. Tilford where he could shove that, and we made a deal with Union! On the pipeline! And that whole ocean of oil underneath our fields!

Plainview:
[Eli is intending to bless the well]
I thank you all so much for visiting with us at this time. I've had the pleasure of meeting some of you, and I hope, very much in the months to come, I'll be able to visit with each and every one of you. Ah... I'm better at digging holes in the ground than making speeches, so let's forget the speech for this evening, just make it a simple blessing. You see, one man doesn't prospect from the ground. It takes a whole community of good people, such as yourselves... and, uh, this is good. We stay together. We pray together, we work together and, if the good Lord smiles kindly on our endeavor, we share in the wealth together. Now before we spud in Mary's Well number one - named for the lovely Miss Mary Sunday here by my side, a proud daughter of these hills - I'd just like to say God bless these honest labors of ours; and, of course, God bless you all. Amen.

Plainview:
Mr. Bankside, I'm not going to waste your time; I'd certainly appreciate it if you didn't waste mine. Now, if you wish to sign with me, we can have a well drilling within ten days, but your lot is further north from the discovery well up here, and so... Well, that means we'll probably have to dig deeper. And if there's as much oil here as I think there is, it'll be harder to reach, but once we find it, we can take it right out. You have to act quickly, because very soon these fields will be dry. Now... I need you to know what you want to do. Now, because of the distance from the discovery well, I'll pay you a smaller royalty than you'd get down there, but I'm prepared to give you a thousand dollar bonus on your lot.

Eli Sunday:
Mr. Bandy has a grandson. Have you met his grandson William? William Bandy is one of the finest members we have at the Church of The Third Revelation. He's eager to come to Hollywood to be in movies. He is very good-looking. And I do think he will have success.

Plainview:
I thought as a boy that was the most beautiful house I'd ever seen, and I wanted it. I wanted to live in it, and eat in it, and clean it... And even as a boy, I wanted to have children to run around in it.

Henry Brands:
You can have anything you like now, Daniel, and you should. Where are you gonna build it?